County Ditches Plans For 'I-5'

Residents Who Opposed A Road-widening Project Win Settlement

May 2, 1993|By Will Wellons, of The Sentinel Staff

Residents along Kennedy Boulevard and Lake Avenue no longer have to worry about ''Interstate 5'' running past their front doors.

Orange County is expected to shelve plans to more than double the size of Kennedy Boulevard through Eatonville and Lake Avenue though Maitland for at least five years. The only widening the county will pursue is expanding the road to four lanes under Interstate 4 so traffic can flow better onto Lake Destiny Drive and Wymore Road. That road work will not begin for at least a year.

In 1987, the Orange County Commission approved widening the road, which changes names in the two cities, from two to five lanes between Forest City Road and U.S. Highway 17-92.

The county's decision brought cries from residents who said the widening would lead to high-speed traffic fit for an interstate running through the heart of historic Eatonville and Maitland's residential neighborhoods.

Many Eatonville residents called the expanded road ''Interstate 5'' and worried it would destroy the tiny community, which was one of the first American cities incorporated by blacks.

The City of Maitland sued to block the project.

To settle the lawsuit, the county has agreed not to widen the road until at least 1998, except for portions under I-4. Maitland and county officials are expected to approve the settlement in the next few weeks.

Ending the nearly six-year battle over the road seems to have left everyone happy.

Orange County Commissioner Bill Donegan, who was a Maitland city commissioner when the road widening was first proposed, said expanding the road to get more traffic onto U.S. 17-92 was a flawed idea because the highway already is overloaded. ''This was a road from nowhere to nowhere,'' Donegan said.

Maitland Vice Mayor Ray Link agreed.

Even George Cole, the county's public works director, is satisfied because he will be able to make changes at Lake Destiny and Wymore to ease traffic backups.